Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Please.

Just fix the country’s crumbling infrastructure, and there’s millions of jobs right there. JOBS! This is work that has to be done anyway, we are behind on it, and people need the jobs. Bridges are falling down. Literally falling down. Many of our ports and airports are out of date. Don’t even talk about our country’s rail transportation – I just got back from England. And public transit? What public transit would you be talking about?

Canceling the automatic, across-the-board spending reductions known as the “sequester” today would have a sizable short-term impact on our economy, according to a recent letter from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to House Budget Committee chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). CBO estimates that canceling sequestration would increase the level of real GDP by $113 billion (0.7 percent) and generate 900,000 new jobs in the third quarter of calendar year 2014; a number akin to 40 percent of the total number of jobs created over the last twelve months.

It is not hard to imagine ways we could fix the terrible unemployment situation. Jeeze, just stop doing all the things that have cost so many jobs. (Manufacturing, construction, teachers, etc…) You can even get a little bit visionary.

Retrofit every home and building to be energy efficient. Just apply insulation, seal leaks, put in better windows, paint roofs white… Think of all the basic jobs that creates, and the design jobs and the manufacturing and supply jobs. Make sure you buy only American-made – this is American tax dollars being spent. If you want to go for it, put in energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, too. When you get done with this project our entire economy would be so much more energy-efficient that the whole project would pay for itself in a few years!

Million of jobs and an energy-efficient economy that pays for the work! PLEASE!

These are all such no-brainers that you have to consider that the Republicans in Congress are blocking these on purpose.

Jobs. Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. Please.

This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.

Dave Johnson (Redwood City, California) is a fellow at Campaign for America's Future, writing about US manufacturing, trade, and economic and industrial policy. He is also a senior fellow with Renew California.

Dave has more than 20 years of technology industry experience, including positions as CEO and VP of marketing. His earlier career included technical positions, including video game design at Atari and Imagic. And he was a pioneer in design and development of productivity and educational applications of personal computers. More recently he helped cofound a company developing desktop systems to validate carbon trading in the US.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Please.

Just fix the country’s crumbling infrastructure, and there’s millions of jobs right there. JOBS! This is work that has to be done anyway, we are behind on it, and people need the jobs. Bridges are falling down. Literally falling down. Many of our ports and airports are out of date. Don’t even talk about our country’s rail transportation – I just got back from England. And public transit? What public transit would you be talking about?

Canceling the automatic, across-the-board spending reductions known as the “sequester” today would have a sizable short-term impact on our economy, according to a recent letter from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to House Budget Committee chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). CBO estimates that canceling sequestration would increase the level of real GDP by $113 billion (0.7 percent) and generate 900,000 new jobs in the third quarter of calendar year 2014; a number akin to 40 percent of the total number of jobs created over the last twelve months.

It is not hard to imagine ways we could fix the terrible unemployment situation. Jeeze, just stop doing all the things that have cost so many jobs. (Manufacturing, construction, teachers, etc…) You can even get a little bit visionary.

Retrofit every home and building to be energy efficient. Just apply insulation, seal leaks, put in better windows, paint roofs white… Think of all the basic jobs that creates, and the design jobs and the manufacturing and supply jobs. Make sure you buy only American-made – this is American tax dollars being spent. If you want to go for it, put in energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, too. When you get done with this project our entire economy would be so much more energy-efficient that the whole project would pay for itself in a few years!

Million of jobs and an energy-efficient economy that pays for the work! PLEASE!

These are all such no-brainers that you have to consider that the Republicans in Congress are blocking these on purpose.

Jobs. Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. Please.

This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.

Dave Johnson (Redwood City, California) is a fellow at Campaign for America's Future, writing about US manufacturing, trade, and economic and industrial policy. He is also a senior fellow with Renew California.

Dave has more than 20 years of technology industry experience, including positions as CEO and VP of marketing. His earlier career included technical positions, including video game design at Atari and Imagic. And he was a pioneer in design and development of productivity and educational applications of personal computers. More recently he helped cofound a company developing desktop systems to validate carbon trading in the US.